About the Book

Poverty and Power asserts that American poverty is a structural problem resulting from failings in our social system rather than individual failings of the poor. Contrary to the popular belief that poverty results from individual deficiencies—that poor people lack intelligence, determination, or skills—author Edward Royce introduces students to the very real structural issues that stack the balance of power in the United States. The second edition of this provocative book has been revised throughout with new statistical information, and analysis of the recent recession, the Obama presidency, increasing political polarization, the rise of the Tea Party and appearance of the Occupy Movement, new antipoverty movements, and more.

---

Contents

1: Poverty as a Social Problem
Part I: Individualistic Theories of Poverty and Inequality2: The Biogenetic Theory of Poverty and Inequality
3: The Cultural Theory of Poverty and Inequality
4: The Human Capital Theory of Poverty and Inequality
Part II: A Structural Perspective on Poverty—Four Systems
5: The Economic System and Poverty
6: The Political System and Poverty
7: The Cultural System and Poverty
8: The Social System and Poverty
Part III: A Structural Perspective on Poverty—Ten Obstacles
9: Structural Obstacles and the Persistence of Poverty (I)
10: Structural Obstacles and the Persistence of Poverty (II)
11: Conclusion

---

About the Author / Editor

Edward Royce is professor emeritus of sociology at Rollins College where he was a recipient of the Cornell Distinguished Faculty Award. He is the author of The Origins of Southern Sharecropping and Classical Social and Modern Society: Marx, Durkheim, Weber.

---